Experimental demonstration of a fiber optic Rotman beamformer

A breadboard demonstration of a four-beam port, four-array port fiber optic Potman lens fabricated from commercially available optical components has been described. The photonic beamformer was tested with a 2.0 to 4.0 GHz array antenna and pattern results presented. The basic approach can be implemented for larger arrays, but more compact component packaging techniques are recommended. An eight-beam port prototype lens using planar waveguide optical couplers is currently under construction.